Deseret

Deseret was an unrecognized Mormon state that existed in the present-day US states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming, with Salt Lake City serving as its capital and Mormonism being the state religion.

The state was first conceived in 1847, when Mormon settlers settled in the Salt Lake Valley near the Great Salt Lake of Utah. President of the Church Brigham Young initially sought to apply for status as a territory, but he later decided to apply for statehood instead, following the example of California and New Mexico. In 1849, realizing that the Mormons did not have time for the statehood process, Young and a group of church elders drafted a state constitution based on that of Iowa and declared their own statehood. President Zachary Taylor was tempted to incorporate a California-Deseret union into the USA as a single state so as to avoid upsetting the balance of power between free and slave states, but the US Congress found this plan controversial, and it was also opposed to the Mormon practice of polygamy. In September 1850, the Utah Territory was created, and Young was made its governor; the idea of Deseret was soon abandoned as the Rockies states became a part of the USA.